How To Get Rid Of Mushrooms In Yard (and how to control the growth of mushrooms)

Mushrooms are pesky little garden or yard guests that spread very quickly. They thrive mostly on organic materials from shrubs and roots to underground plants or even pieces of timber in large lawns and in wooded areas. Prolonged rainfall, leaks, or overwatering also encourage sprouting of mushrooms, with low light conditions paired with the right amount of moisture, further escalating the encroachment of mushrooms.And though mushrooms aren’t all bad since mushrooms breakdown organic matter into important nutrients for your lawn, they don’t make the most beautiful lawns, and they could destroy your tuff grass.

To get rid of mushrooms, first, try digging out the mushrooms and fungi by hand if there are a few mushrooms scattered around. You also need to stop feeding the mushrooms by removing the water source, draining out the lawn, or fixing the cause of the leakage.

Below is a list of the effective solutions for getting rid of mushrooms

How To Get Rid Of Mushrooms In Yard

Causes	How to Get Rid of Mushrooms in the Yard
Buried organic matter	Breakdown the fungus using nitrogen fertilizer
High Moisture	Deep, infrequent watering or installing a French Drain, or fix leaks Aerate the lawn
Low Lighting	Trim trees, remove shade, and tree leaves/ stumps
Spreading spores	Put the plucked mushrooms in sealed plastic bags under the sun

Natural solutions

1. Digging out the mushrooms

First, try digging out the mushroom heads and the fungi. This often works well if there are only a countable number of mushrooms scattered out in the yard.

2. Get rid of the water sources.

As mentioned above, the growth of mushrooms and fungi is hastened by the presence of moisture in the right temperature settings. To kill and stop further growth of the mushrooms, consider starving the mushrooms water. So, remove the water source in areas that are soaked, fix leaks, and introduce better drainage in your yard.

3. Remove shades and decaying elements.

Remove any stumps and tree branches from the yard to ensure that all areas of the yard are well lit. This is especially important in the overly shaded areas of your yard, especially where mushrooms grow. You also need to maintain the yard regularly by picking up all fallen branches, needles, and leaves. Doing this reduces the amount of decaying and consequently the growth of mushrooms and other forms of fungi.

Besides decaying wood chips and small branches, remove pet waste, as well as other types of decomposing matter from the lawn. Also, keep off the grass clippings from the yard after mowing. You could buy a grass catcher attachment for your mower also, then clean out all the waste.

4. Aerate the lawn

Aerating the lawn in spring will also help get rid of mushrooms in your yard because it breaks up and kills fungal mats below the surface of the yard. Also, toss out the plugs after aeration. Keep in mind that the presence of mushrooms often means that the soil underneath the grass isn’t draining well.

5. Fertilize the yard

In case you have been struggling with mushroom problems for some time, and the mushrooms keep always come back, no matter what you do, fertilizing the lawn or yard might be exactly what you need to do.

Fertilizing the yard with nitrogen-rich fertilizer stops fungi in the tracks. Nitrogen also increases the decay rate of mushrooms and fungi, meaning that the fungi won’t grow in the yard anymore. For the best long-term mushroom eradication, avoid slow-release fertilizers.

You’d need about 5 pounds/ 1000sq.ft of ammonium sulfate fertilizer. This accelerates the decaying process for the carbon-rich organic matter, slowing and preventing fungi growth.

6. Control the growth of the mushrooms

While it makes sense to pluck out the mushrooms and expect the problem to go away, this doesn’t always work, and as you already know, the mushrooms only keep coming back – because the spores are propagated when the mushrooms are mishandled. This is why you need a better way of controlling mushroom growth.

Here is what you should do instead:

After you pluck off the mushrooms, put them in a small bag, then tie or seal them off the bag. This keeps the mushroom spores from being dispersed to other areas of the yard. In the compost pit, the mushroom spores mature, and they lie there waiting to rise and to be dispersed to other areas of the yard.

Make a soapy solution on the mushrooms to kill off the spores. This is important because mushrooms still grow, even indoors. So, pluck them immediately, then douche them in soapy water.

7. Install a French drain

If you’ve done all the above, but the mushroom problems aren’t going away, it might be time to install a French drain. The drain will allow you to keep a more clean, dry, and hygienic environment that doesn’t support the growth of mushrooms. Also, it’s important to keep in mind that in as much as you are a clean freak who tries to get rid of all messes, it’s practically impossible to get rid of decaying organic matter from your yard, and you would need a more practical and effective approach to get rid of the mushrooms. The French Drain will help keep the underground soil cover dry and inhabitable to mushrooms.

8. Kill mushrooms with vinegar

Vinegar is an effective mushroom killer, and it will kill meadow mushrooms, horse, and death angel mushrooms.

9. Use Fungicide

Fungicides might not correct the root cause of the mushroom problem by reaching the hyphae, but you could use fungicides to get rid of the problem. The best fungicides coat the existing fungi and the hyphae, stopping the spread of spores, subsequently stopping new fungicide growth. Just make sure that the fungicide you choose is safe and preferably chemical-free fungicides.

You could use a mixture of baking soda and water, or even dishwashing soap, but without bleach or a degreaser.

Conclusion

Getting rid of mushrooms is as easy as starving the mushrooms of air, food, moisture, and all other conditions that encourage the growth of mushrooms in the yard. So, remove leaves, branches, stumps, and all other decaying matter. You could also use nitrogen-filled fertilizer, and in extreme cases, get a French drain set up.

FAQs

1. What are fairy ring mushrooms?

A fairy ring mushroom can be defined and a ring of mushrooms that grows in the grass. Though easy to spot, the mushroom caps aren’t always visible, and they will look like rings on the dark green grass.

2. Can you make your own fungicide at home?

Yes, you need baking soda and water. Mix about 4 tablespoons of baking soda with 1 gallon of water, then pour it on the mushroom-infested areas.